Mark Bakewell (born 11 December 1963) is an Australian rugby union forwards coach. Bakewell has traveled extensively in a coaching career spanning over 20 years; he has coached Eastern Suburbs and Melbourne Rebels in Australia; Brive and Béziers in France; the Tongan national team;

Suntory Sungoliath Tokyo Sungoliath (formerly known as Suntory Sungoliath) is owned by the Suntory beverage company and is one of the Japanese rugby union teams in the Top League. The team is based in Fuchū, Tokyo, as is their local rival Toshiba Brave Lupus. The ...

in Japan; as well as

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, Bristol and

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

in England.

Early life and playing career

Bakewell was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and began playing rugby aged four before moving to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

at seven. He played around 400 games for Eastern Suburbs in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

at prop and in the backrow. In 1996 he became an Australian citizen.

Coaching career

Bakewell began his coaching career at Eastern Suburbs, his old club, as a forwards and strength and conditioning coach in 1995. In 1997 he worked with as their fitness coach and became head coach of Easter Suburbs in 1999 and was named New South Wales coach of the year in 2000. In 2001 he joined

CA Brive Club Athlétique Brive Corrèze Limousin, also referred to as CA Brive, Brive () or CAB, is a French professional rugby union club based in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the Corrèze department. They compete in the first-tier Top 14 competition. Briv ...

as head coach in France's Pro D2, he led them to promotion in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

but then left following a contract dispute to join AS Béziers. Following three seasons with Béziers Bakewell joined

in July 2006 as forwards coach under

Steve Meehan Stephen Meehan is an Australian professional rugby union football coach. He is currently an assistant coach at Toulon in the Top 14 competition in France, and was formerly in charge of Bath Rugby in the English Premiership. He was head coac ...

. He has described the three years he spent at Bath as his favourite job, with Bath finishing in the title play off positions in both

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. He later returned to Australia to be forwards coach to the Melbourne Rebels in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. In 2012 he joined as forwards coach and was part of the coaching team when Tonga beat in Scotland. In 2014 he returned to Eastern Suburbs as head coach but quickly moved on in April to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

joining

. After a season in Japan, In February 2016, Bakewell returned to England to replace

Steve Borthwick Stephen William Borthwick (born 12 October 1979) is an English rugby union coach who played lock for Bath and Saracens. At International level, he represented the senior England rugby union team between 2001 and 2010 and captained them betwe ...

at Bristol in England's second division. While at Bristol Bakewell saw the side promoted in 2016 but then relegated from Premiership Rugby the following year. On 14 February 2018 Bakewell joined

to work as forwards coach under fellow Australian Matt O'Connor. BBC Radio Leicester reported that Bakewell has left his role on 10 December 2019, with the club eventually confirming his departure on 18 December.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakewell, Mark Living people 1963 births Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby union players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Leicester Tigers coaches Sportspeople from Christchurch